The Craziest Thing Victor De Le Rue Did All Season and More | Arcadia

Over the past three years, Victor De Le Rue has become a mainstay on the TransWorld SNOWboarding marquee. Through Origins, Insight, and now Arcadia, the frenchman has proved his riding time and time again as one of the top in our sport. We quickly sat down with him to chat about his latest year filming for our movie project and what the 28-year-old has in store for us next. If history has proven anything, it is will be well worth the wait. Don’t forget to scroll to the bottom and enter for a chance to win his kit from this year filming including his Nitro board, Vans boots, and Buff headwear!

Yukon do it, Victor! Yukon, Canada. PHOTO: Grant Gunderson

Another three year veteran in the movie, how was this year compared to others?
This year was a bit different, I was doing two projects at the same time, doing Arcadia and doing the #SweetAndSourMovie with a skier Richard Permin, he is a French charger. So I did not got the opportunity to film directly with the TWS crew really this year and was more going to trips and meeting different people.

But man, TransWorld movies are always rad projects. Featuring some of the best young riders that are destroying it at the time, they are always one of the top the videos of the year. Three years ago, somehow, I managed to make it in. Not sure how that happened but I have been on my own cloud just to be a part of it! Somehow once again, I got another part in the projects and am insanely stoked about that fact.

I first spent a great winter with a good crew, building bunch of big booters with the ONE MORE BLOCK CREW (Vic Daviet & Arthur Longo) and had a sick AK trip… then it just kept going. The next year, although I thought it was a one year kind of deal, and then this year again they kept me in.
Very thankful for these three great years.

What are some of the things you are most stoked on in snowboarding right now?
Right now, I am really stoked about AK riding, looking for bigger lines than when I started. It’s funny how you change in a way. You know you always look at the freeriders and you feel its just for the old guys and you are not that much into it etc. When I was a kid I was just interested in riding park, then discovered backcountry only when I was 17, doing both for a while. Looking at people who were freeriding, I was thinking it’s cool but I might never do that, freestyle feels better to me. Then one year I got to go to AK with my brother Xavier and I was only looking for the smallest line they could get with absolutely no exposure below to limit the risks, maybe trying a few tricks eventually… but now looking for bigger lines. Once you’ve done a big line, you feel like, okay, I’ve done this one, so the bigger one next to it must be possible. And then you keep going, feeling more confident and learning along the way. I think I am riding lines now that I would never have even looked at and thought was possible before. So you look at the mountain in a different way as the years go.

Now I am looking towards the steep lines more and more. But stoked to keep the freestyle for sure, and keep improving this way to obviously… trying to mix all that now.

This would be a pretty good #InMyCalvins ad, huh? Victor eyeing up a steep line in Haines, Alaska. PHOTO: Scott Serfas

Where did you begin your season? First trip? How was it?
Season in Europe was horrible. It was dumping in Canada. I called Rusty Ockenden, and he confirmed it was firing so I booked a plane there with Grego Campi, the filmer, and we headed that way. I was really stoked on finally checking out this mythical backcountry place and learn a bit more the sledding missions.

“Very thankful for these three great years,”—Victor De le Rue. We are too, Victor. PHOTO: Grant Gunderson

Who is better at snowmobiling, you or Grego?
I suck but am still better.

So you broke some sleds as well this season? What is up with the French and snowmobiling?
Oh, snowmobiling is huge in France… no! Just kidding. Just the patrollers have some old ones for taking care of safety in the resorts. So no sled, what we do is we go to resorts and then we hike into the backcountry and look for cool virgin places with cool terrain. Yeah, so trying sledding was interesting, things broke all the time, and when you are not a mechanic kind of guy it sucks… but we had cool people around us so they taught us the basics and it helped a lot.

How was it meeting up and riding with the Manboys?
Dude, without these guys it would have been impossible. Rusty helped out with giving me info on snow conditions up there so we made the move to go there, then rented the sled from him, he explained how everything it works out there and brought us up a few days, shoveled a bit our sleds out and then connected us to other people so we could make our own crew, and they could go on the good days as far as they wanted to reach the fucking awesome spots we were not good enough yet to get to.

Were you part of any other projects this past season?
Worked as well on #SweetAndSourMovie this winter, a 42 minutes movie that will be out on Red Bull Media House early November.

What was the craziest thing you did from your season while filming for Arcadia?
There is a shot in my part that doesn't look that extreme because it was kind of smooth but could have gone wrong really easily. Got dropped from a para-motor with one foot strapped in onto the Val Thorens in-run of the snowpark and did a trick. Was super fun and scary and worked out super well!

Not the craziest thing he did all season, but still pretty crazy. Victor De le Rue in Silvertip Lodge, BC. PHOTO: Grant Gunderson

Why were the only one to film with helicopters? You think you are better than us!?
Ahaha Filming with helicopter is really an expensive thing, I remember the first year doing this, it was really a huge investment, you put all in and then, you hope you will do good and that the sponsors will follow up for the next years. Kind of worked for me but nowadays its getting tougher and tougher to find the budgets to finance such trips.

Who cares if you break a sled when you have views like this. Alaska. PHOTO: Grego Campo

Who's part are you most stoked on in Arcadia? Any tricks that stick out more than others?
Halldor's part is absolutely f***ed with bunch of weird flips you don’t even understand while watching them ahah. You need to check out the full movie, you’ll be stoked if you are a snowboarding lover.

Finally, you are a pretty big dude, in a fight, is there anyone on the Arcadia roster that you think could take you?
Oh yeah, anyone probably! I got in a few fights but I feel I am more a receiver for that ahaha.